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Safety is, or should be, of primary concern to every employer in the construction industry. It is an important issue to contractors in the insulation industry. NIA formed the NIA Health and Safety Committee in 1998. In the years since its creation, the committee has worked to provide association members with information concerning safety and health topics in the insulation industry by writing articles for the newsletter; reviewing and updating the NIA Safety Handbook; and developing, judging, and awarding the Theodore H. Brodie Distinguished Safety Award each year. Last year, the Health and Safety Committee extended this mission by creating the first Committee Days Safety Roundtable.

The inaugural Safety Roundtable was held at the 2006 Committee Days. More than half of those who attended the event answered a survey assessing their experience. Each attendee responded that they would recommend the Safety Roundtable to their colleagues, and that they planned to attend the next roundtable. Because the Safety Roundtable was received so positively, the committee decided it would become an annual event. This year’s roundtable will be held November 8, 2007, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C.

During this session, members and their safety directors will have an opportunity to receive and share information with other insulation contractors on a variety of important topics. There will be no stand-up presentations. Dale Haden, safety director for PCI, and Gary Auman, NIA’s general counsel, will serve as facilitators for the session. They will also answer any questions that may arise at the session. They hope to cover several topics that have raised questions from contractors in the past.

Topics covered last year included Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordkeeping requirements; the importance and use of transitional duty programs to return employees to work following an injury; how to participate in an OSHA inspection; the importance of safety pretask planning; owner-controlled insurance programs; a comparison of the use of industrial clinics versus emergency rooms for treatment of work-related injuries; liability to employers for the use of company-owned vehicles; and thoughts about controlling the costs of workers’ compensation claims. Topics from last year can be repeated. If you have a topic you would like to have discussed, please contact Tristan Wood at twood@insulation.org or 703-683-6422, ext. 10, as soon as possible.

There will be something for everyone in attendance at the 2007 Safety Roundtable. To make sure the discussion sufficiently covers the most important topics to attendees, a list of topics will be sent to registrants about 30 days before the roundtable. Attendees can then prioritize them and submit them to NIA, and this information will be used to prepare the agenda for the session. This way, the roundtable will be sure to cover the most popular topics first. The committee also plans to set aside approximately 30 minutes for attendees to bring up hot topics and new ideas at this year’s roundtable.

Because the committee and the NIA Board believe that some companies will want to send individuals to this roundtable who may not attend other Committee Days meetings, a separate, small registration fee is being charged for participation in the roundtable. Attendees at the roundtable will have an opportunity to network and continue discussions on topics of interest at a reception for attendees immediately following the roundtable.

To register for this event, click here to download the registration form  ^PDF. Please fax your completed registration form back to 703-549-4838.